


Consequences can be dealt with

by Papillon10



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Aged Up, Blind Date, F/M, Fluff, Identity Reveal, Marichat, a little bit of angst i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-29
Updated: 2018-12-29
Packaged: 2019-09-30 03:40:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17216324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Papillon10/pseuds/Papillon10
Summary: Alya and Nino set up a blind date for Marinette. She could've sworn Adrien was the one who'd show up in the end only to be presented with the one and only Chat Noir. Which was... pretty unbelievable.She was not that lucky. She was not that unlucky either.But he was that stupid to out himself on a blind date.Except... she outed him.





	Consequences can be dealt with

**Author's Note:**

  * For [barnes1917](https://archiveofourown.org/users/barnes1917/gifts).



> Happy holidays, bxchanan-barnes :) I'm your secret santa and I'm so, so sorry it took me so long to finish writing this, but I really hope you'll like it. (It's not beta read, sorry for that, too...)

She hated Alya.

With a passion.

More often than not.

That made her wonder why she kept being best friends with her. 

Or she was just overly dramatic.

Probably that.

The thing was... she still hated Alya anyway. It was _her_ fault she was literally wasting one perfect Friday night, waiting for a “blind” date to happen and most likely turn into a complete disaster.

She didn’t even want to be there in the first place, but… Alya.

Still… she could at least appreciate the effort the girl and her boyfriend had put into it. They hadn’t gone anywhere fancy, just the park near her home, but Alya and Nino made that certain corner they chose look like a setting out of the sappiest film ever made. It even made up for the cold. The trees surrounding the two tables they chose had fairy lights entangled in their branches and the desert just ready to be eaten in front of her looked positively haveanly. She wondered what they’d have done if there hadn’t been those few little tables in their park. Probably found another one where the scenary would’ve been just as good and dragged her there. 

She could hear Alya talk over the phone at the table behind her, but she was too immersed in her own device to really care. If she let her attention drift back to the matter at hand she knew she’d be too tempted to eat the cake in front of her and maybe the one that was supposed to be her date’s and just be done with it. At least Alya was suffering, too. Nino was supposed to be there with their mystery friend – aka her date – fifteen minutes ago.

Adrien. They could have just said it was Adrien they were trying to set her up with instead of plotting that whole charade. That had become painfully obvious when they told her to put on a mask.“He’s just really shy,” they said, “it’d be more interesting for both of you,” they said. The only interesting thing she’d seen in the whole situation was the idea of playing along. She’d started thinking it wasn’t really worth it after all, so with an annoyed sigh she put down the phone, took off the uncomfortable mask and started ogling the cake tempting her more and more. 

Movement in front of her made her snap back to reality and take in the boy she now faced. 

Blond hair, green eyes, sheepish smile. The only difference was the hairstyle, which resembled Chat Noir’s more than Adrien’s. The Ladybug mask on his face didn’t quite seem to match him, but she couldn’t really pinpoint why. 

To hell with “secret identities”.

“I’m so sorry I’m late-” he tried to apologise- “I had to get rid of my dad before I could come and Nino promised to wait for me, so I kind of dragged him in this mess too… I’m really sorry…”

Definitely Adrien. 

She almost groaned, but decided not to call him out. Teasing him a little wouldn’t hurt. 

“You make it sound like you’ve just killed your father and made Nino your accomplice.”

Her flat face and raised eyebrow were met with a slight blush, but a mischievous glint shone in his eyes for a second. 

“Well, I did resort to drastic measures, princess, but I would never go so far. I just had to use my cat-like stealth and use the backdoor,” he winked.

Marinette blinked.

And blinked again.

That was… not like Adrien. But it was absolutely impossible, utterly improbable, completely unrealistical for that in front of her to be the one and only Chat Noir. 

She was not _that_ lucky. She wasn’t _that_ unlucky either. 

…but he _was_ that stupid to out himself on a blind date.

There was still a chance she was wrong though. She’d just need an undeniable proof. 

“Not as impurressive as you seem to think.”

He snorted. 

“Well, purrincess, you have yet to see how pawsome I am in fact. I’m a cat of many talents after all.”

“The only pawsome thing is that you managed to out yourself two minutes in,” she head-banged the table in an ‘oh so done with everything’ manner. “Come on,” she started again rising from the table, “can we go somewhere else for a few seconds, ‘cause I really need to tell you something without those two hearing everything.”

She didn’t even need to hear Alya’s muffles “hey” to know she was right in her assumption. 

Chat let his grin fall, sighing.

“Come on M, they know. I came here with Nino, remember? Sorry… I just thought…”

“That it’d be such a good idea to let your Chat show when you were on a date with a civilian and your friends?! Oh my god, Chat I swear to god, sometimes you amaze me, really. Now I can’t even ask you to get your mask off ‘cause I’d know who you are!” she whisper-shouted obviously frustrated as she took her seat again. “Might as well make the most of it, right?” 

Her half-hearted laugh died down as she took in her expression. 

“Oh come on, don’t tell me you didn’t expect me to figure that out?! You’re the only one who calls me _princess_ , you’re the only one who’d try to show off like that and you’re the only on who’d overuse the cat puns. You made it obvious, to be honest.”

“…I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he tried, eyes moving constantly between her and the two friends behind her.

It didn’t take long for her to realise what all that was about.

“You told me they knew!”

“They do know who I am! But not about the Chat Noir part! I’m not Chat Noir.”

“You don’t even believe yourself! Oh my god, I can’t believe this happened! I’m so not dealing with this. I’m not supposed to know who you are! It’s already bad enough two people know!  
_You_ are going to solve this yourself.”

She stood up and promptly left the table, leaving a stunned Chat Noir and two shocked friends behind. 

* * *

Adrien was completely and utterly screwed.

He had even been hopeful before this date. He’d manged to go behind his father’s back with minimal effort, Nino had told him the girl waiting for him was a catch and then he was faced with an amazing Marinette Dupain-Cheng. 

The whole thing had such a great potential to turn up fabulous that he let himself get carried away and act too much like Chat Noir. 

Blame it on the excitement, on the giddiness, on the absolute need to repair the lateness mistake… on the beauty that was Marinette… who was he kidding, of course he was the only one to blame there. 

It had been quite a while since Marinette stopped stuttering around him, more than a year, but it still took her the better part of the next year to finally open up to him. Since then they’d been basically best friends, but once he started seeing the sheer force of nature that was Marinette Dupain-Cheng he couldn’t really do anything to stop an imminent crush. Ladybug had never seemed to return his affection; it was time he let himself look for something real.

She was interesting to say the least and he wanted to know yet more of her, he wanted to spend yet more time with her and all her excited blabbering, and passionate rambling, and the now too cute for his well-being stutters. But he didn’t want to risk losing her just because of a silly crush.

When Nino came up with the idea of a blind date with a friend of his it didn’t take a genius to figure out whom he was talking about. The mask thing just made it all better. It was his chance to… test the waters, to see if he had a chance without risking anything. 

The moment he saw that it was indeed Marinette who was waiting for him, a burst of excitement shot through him.

He couldn’t help it when he called her princess.

He couldn’t help it when she gave him an opening to seem cool.

He couldn’t help it when she started with the cat puns. 

He could’ve sworn he did those things as Adrien too. 

Looked like he didn’t.

And now…now he had a very silent Alya and Nino looking at him like he was from another planet. 

Taking off his mask, he ran a hand through his hair. “That went well.”

A moment of silence.

“Dude.”

“Ok, that _could_ have gone better.”

Alya breathed in, breathed out and let herself smirk.

“I called it though,” she then said with the smuggest expression.

“Oh no, no, no-” Adrien tried denying- “I’m not Chat Noir, I don’t really know why she jumped to _that_ conclusion!”

“Buddy, you don’t even believe yourself.”

“Come on guys, how could I even be Chat Noir?! You know my father, I could never go behind his back like that, not to mention that I’d have to be there for literally every akuma attack and I can’t really miss school or photoshoots or… stuff like that.”

“Except that’s literally what you always do, man,” intervened Nino oh-so-helpfully. “I saw you literally today going behind your dad’s back and at least now all those suspicious disappearances are explained.”

“Wait a sec-” interrupted Alya, her expression turning into something Adrien very much didn’t like- “why are you cheating on Ladybug?!”

He could only groan.

“I’m not cheating on anybody and that’s not just because Marinette literally left.”

“Adrien, man, you know I love you, but please stop denying. All three of us know you are Chat Noir. Four if we count Mari. So just answer Alya the question ‘cause she won’t let you live if you don’t.”

“Marinette doesn’t actually know, though and I’m still not cheating on anybody. Ladybug’s never liked me like that and after years of pining after her I’ve decided it was high time I stopped bothering her and torturing myself. Happy now?”

“Ecstatic. Though now I can’t have one of my ships sailing without sinking the other and that’s a bummer. Whatever, it was about damn time you and Mari got your shit together and you wrecked it. You need to better your game or I swear to god, Agreste…”

“You do know that ships remain ships more often than not, right?”

“Irrelevant! You and Mari were made for each other!”

“You’ve always said that about Ladybug and Chat Noir too.”

“But Ladybug is not my best friend and excuse me if I put her second.”

“The problem is she’s too good of a friend for the Adrien me – and I don’t really want to wreak that, too, thank you very much – and I kind of doubt she’ll be too glad to talk to me as Chat,” he deadpanned. 

“…sometimes you amaze me, really. Has Nino actually never told you?!”

“ _You_ told me to keep it a secret-” he tried to defend himself, though turning towards his friend, he continued- “but come on man, you _can’t_ not have known! Everyone knew!”

“Care to enlighten me, though?”

“You seemed quite happy to see it was Marinette waiting for you,” started Nino raising an eyebrow.

“Who wouldn’t…? It’s _Marinette_ we’re talking about,” he said rolling his eyes. He was quite sure his crush on the girl had been obvious for quite a while for everyone except for the noirette in question. 

“Marinette used to say the same when it came to you.”

“What do you mean?”

“You mean to tell me you have absolutely no idea what I’m talking about?!”

“Just tell me and be done with it… I should really go apologize to Mari… At least _Adrien_ still has a chance…”

Although he muttered the last part as if to himself only, both Alya and Nino heard it and as the picture-perfect couple they were, rolled their eyes simultaneously.

“If anyone has a chance with Marinette, that’s you, Adrien,” she deadpanned, hoping he’d finally understand. 

Of course he remained just as oblivious. 

“You know what,” stepped in Nino, “That’s not for us to tell anyway. And whether Adrien has or not a chance doesn’t matter now, because you're right, _Chat Noir_ still has to talk to Mari.”

He didn’t really want to, but Adrien decided the best thing at the moment would be to wave off their ‘clues’ from earlier. “I better get going then.”

“You know Mari, do you really want to get skinned tonight? Nope, wait ‘till tomorrow. _Then_ you can get a bouquet for her, too. And maybe some chocolate beside that. And before you go to her, I will have already talked to her 

* * *

Marinette went straight to her room, crawled up to the bed and promptly face-planted on the mattress. 

It turned out air was something she actually needed.

She rolled around, stood up, plopped back down. After five minutes she figured restlessness was a thing and she needed to do something about it. It didn’t take long for her to spot Tikki floating somewhere near her. 

“He fucked up,” she blinked at the kwami, face emotionless and tone flat. Tikki remained just as quiet as before, letting the girl spill all the frustrations she knew she had.

“He fucked up so bad and now two people _know_ and _I_ am not one of them and Nino and Alya are friends with him which means I can’t even think about dating him as Ladybug because then they’ll figure out who I am, too and as Marinette I have absolutely no chance because I fucked up even worse and now he hates me and the worst thing is that my priorities aren’t even where they should be!” she promptly finished her rant with a groan and fell on her back.

“Marinette, you know things are not that bad…,” tried Tikki, but she knew whatever she said wouldn’t really reach the girl who’d rather make up a thousand scenarios in her head, none of which even remotely rational. 

“You both… made mistakes, but it could’ve been worse. Both Alya and Nino can be trusted and Chat could never hate you.”

“You never agreed to my revealing my own identity to them, though,” she answered after a moment of silence. “And I bet you’d say the same thing now if I told you I wanted to tell them. Or just him.”

“It can’t be helped, Marinette. What happened, happened, but that doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous anymore to have your identities revealed. It could’ve been worse, yes, but it’s not the best situation either.”

Marinette didn’t look at Tikki as she mumbled a tired “I thought so” and she didn’t look at Tikki as she muttered the phrase that’d turn her into Ladybug. 

If she was that restless she might as well do something other than toss and turn on her bed and be useful as a hero. Or just run. 

Just running sounded awesome. 

If she were to be honest with herself she kind of hoped she’d bump into Chat Noir, too; not that she knew what she’d tell him, but wanting to see him had become some kind of habit, some kind of natural state. She didn’t even realise when that happened, but it wasn’t something that happened overnight either. 

It was funny how she got there, though, still, she saw it as a completely normal course of action. The one outcome she should’ve seen coming.

Pining over Adrien, she realised sometime two years before, would mean losing too many things in the end. She knew he loved someone else, she’d heard him, so a confession would only mean making him feel bad for not loving her as more than a friend, which in turn would make whatever it was between them feel awkward, which would lead to a strained friendship. Then… there was all the time she’d basically waste. Love was never a bad thing, unrequited or not, she knew that, but denying herself the chance to be happy would be. Only… letting go was much easier said than done. She couldn’t just _stop_ loving Adrien, but she discovered it was much easier to talk to him once she stopped worrying she’d make a fool of herself. Being just friends with Adrien was easy even though it did hurt in the beginning. And… she liked being his friend regardless of however much she would’ve liked to be more.

It was around that time that she’d started paying a little more attention to Chat’s flirting, too. 

She’d always liked spending time with him and she could say without a trace of hesitation that he was hands down one of her best friends. Once she stopped being blinded by Adrien, actually _seeing_ Chat came quite easily. The devotion, the loyalty, the honesty, the sassiness, the optimism, the determination. All that empathy in him. All that vulnerability. All the little details she had only glimpsed before hit her straight in the face and made her wonder how she didn’t fall for him sooner. 

Of course that’d be when he’d stop flirting. 

Lady Luck alright. 

It took her half a year to fall in love with him and him, to fall in love with someone else. 

It was subtle at first. The way he’d say “m’lady” as if just from habit, the way he’d only seek affection because of his cat tendencies, things she wouldn’t have even noticed if she weren’t looking for them. Then… he started speaking about a certain mystery girl. 

She’d initiated it, the personal conversations held late at night on random rooftops or up on the Eiffel Tour when neither of them felt like sleeping. Conversations between friends, a late attempt at _knowing_ him for who he really was; a late attempt at giving him what he’d always wanted. 

It took him a while to talk openly about her, but when he finally started gushing about that one extraordinary friend of his who was a force to be reckoned with and the sweetest girl Paris’s ever seen, about that one girl who’d never been akumatized but could probably face Hawk Moth and win, he couldn’t really be stopped. There was a brighter spark in his eyes and a sweeter smile on his lips and Ladybug could tell her cat was beyond smitten. 

She smiled and listen and told herself it wouldn’t have worked anyways. It was too dangerous to have their identities revealed, it was too risky to have everyone know they loved each other and let Hawk Moth take advantage of it. 

In the end he was happy and that was all that mattered.

It didn’t hurt any less.

She never stopped being his best friend, though.

But she never stopped trying to get him to look at her like that again. She even started making puns. _Puns_. The friendship just became stronger. And it seemed it’d still be friendship for a good while. 

She knew she was probably exaggerating, just as Tikki had said, but she couldn’t help thinking he was at least annoyed at her for revealing his identity. She sure as hell was. She’d always hated how her mouth would simply run ahead of her mind sometimes, but now… now she really felt like she fucked up big time. She couldn’t even lie to herself some more and say it was his fault, too. He was just being himself, how could that ever be wrong?! If she hadn’t been… well, _herself_ , she wouldn’t even have picked up on the Chat like attitude probably. And the “princess” thing, that really could’ve been a coincidence. 

But noooo, she had to go and be a smartass and tell everyone he was Chat Noir.

She was screwed. 

So… instead of moping around, she thought she should do something useful. In theory. In practice she was still screwed and the only idea at the time was to try talking with Chat. Whom she could not call as Ladybug since Ladybug shouldn’t have known anything about a reveal of sorts. 

The other options… were kind of scary. 

They were still better than nothing, she supposed, so upon returning home and detransforming, she took five minutes to look at the black screen of her phone and then, breathing in, she turned it on. 

Unsurprisingly, all the notifications waiting for her were either missed calls or unread messages from Alya and Nino. Skype came in handy. 

Her friends were very much mind-blown and hyped up over everything that’d happened. And noisy. Nosy too. She’d… expected as much. They still couldn’t believe how she’d figured him out so fast, but insisted that what was done, was done and now she had to make up with him. Make out, too. 

However much she liked that idea, she knew it was so much easier said than done. Proving it to them… even more so.

“I have no chance to be together with him now, though,” she tried concluding.

“So you do admit you’d like the idea.”

“That’s not what matters here, come on Alya…”

“Oh, it matters alright, M. You want to be with him, he obviously wants to be with you. I don’t see any problem here.”

“Well I see a very big one. I can’t be with him as Chat Noir because that’d be too dangerous for both of us and I can’t be with his civilian self because that’d mean revealing his identity. Again. Which’d still be too dangerous for both of us.”

“Come on, Mari, we already know who he is, one more person wouldn’t change anything now,” intervened Nino, raising an eyebrow.

“You don’t get it –” she groaned- “you two knowing is already bad enough! I don’t say you’re not trustworthy, but what if Hawk Moth akumatizes one of you again? What if he akumatizes me?! Or him?! One thought in the wrong direction and that’s it, he has everything he needs!”

Marinette didn’t realize her slip up, too caught up in her attempt to make them see, to make them understand, too, so when Alya threw back a flat “he’d still need Ladybug”, she didn’t stop to think before muttering a sarcastic “he’d very much have her.”

Silence ensued. 

Marinette tried backpedaling, getting herself out of the hole she’d dug herself only to dig a deeper one. Apparently, after spending so much time with her, her friends had figured out that speaking rapidly only meant panic and panic did not come from nowhere. 

One would say after being a super hero for so long she’d master the art of not panicking. 

She didn’t. 

Nino’s incredulous “oh my God” made her stop and Alya blink, closing her mouth just before interrupting Marinette herself. 

Nino’s eyes moved between two spots on the screen, probably her and Alya, trying to sort out the seemingly unbelievable conclusion he’d reach. The utterly terrified look Marinette knew she sported must have only confirmed his suspicions. 

“This isn’t happening…” she groaned, falling back on her bed, now much rather talking to the ceiling rather than her friends. 

“What’s not happening?” she heard Alya’s voice. She didn’t dare acknowledge it; she knew it would only postpone the inevitable. Or hurry it. Either way she couldn’t prevent what was about to happen. 

Nino, although hesitant, wasn’t of much help. 

“...Think about what she’d said. _Everything_ she’d said,” he started. “About Ladybug.”

Alya didn’t respond immediately and Nino didn’t say anything else or a minute until his “you don’t need me spelling this out for you” seemed to confirm whatever suspicion Alya had reached.

Marinette expected silence, expected maybe some incredulous reaction, questions, accusations even, but not the clearly delighted squeal her best friend let out after fully processing the information she now held. 

“This perfect! Oh my God, Nino, do you see what’s happening here?! This couldn’t have gotten any more perfect than this!” 

She was in a frenzy and Marinette dreaded the moment she’d have to look at her laptop again.

Of course it came much sooner than needed.

“I’m coming over there!”

It was one something in the morning, everyone was sleeping and Alya had just discovered her best friend was her idol. Of course the first sensible thing to do was to bolt upright and throw a very eloquent, very hero-like, “What the fuck, no!”

At least it did its job and seemed to stop her from shutting down her computer and leaving. 

“First off-” started Nino, barely holding in a smirk-“Mari’s right, you’re not going anywhere now. And you are absolutely not allowed to spoil anything, hear me Als? Not even a little detail.”

His expression was not reassuring at all and all Marinette wanted at the moment was to shut down the stupid computer and her stupid mind along with it and wait till the next day to see if she still had a Miraculous or Tikki decided she was too irresponsible to hold one. 

No such luck of course.

Said kwami was blinking at her from above the laptop on her bed, an incredulous expression on her face and a look that said a conversation of their own was sure to follow. 

“Ok, ok, got it. But still, I can’t believe this is happening!”

The “me neither” Marinette grumbled went completely ignored by everyone.

“Argh I can see why you didn’t tell anyone but still!” Alya whined before the look in her eyes changed drastically and she came back with a chimed “what happened, happened, though and I want all the deeds now.” 

“Until then, though, you gotta speak with the boy, Mar. He’s not the only one at fault here and you know it,” advised Nino. “Tel him, too, then. The UST’s become even more insufferable now and it needs to be stopped.”

“Hawk Moth, Nino. Hawk Moth. Haven’t I been clear enough? Now it’s even worse. He has one of you and has all the team. Perfect, what can I say?! And stop pushing Chat, come on guys. He loves someone else, for god’s sake! If he didn’t tell you that, he made it clear with Ladybug, so it’s not going to happen.”

“Tell him,” he repeated pointedly, “things will become so much clearer, believe me. As for Hawk Moth…”

“You two can defend each other better if you know who you are, M,” continued Alya _so very helpfully_. “It’ll be so much easier to get to one another when there’s an akuma, to make excuses… oh my God those excuses, it makes so much sense! Anyway… it’ll be so much easier from so many perspectives. And if he gets one of you, the other will know straight away!”

“I hate you so much…”

“Talk to him!”

Nino seemed to know the conversation would lead nowhere considering the time and the state of panic Marinette seemed to be in, so he thought leaving it all on the next day would be the best course of action. “You gotta sleep now. Think it over, but Alya’s right. Talk to him. And with us too. But tomorrow. Night, M…” 

And with a very emphasized “Details, girl!” Alya took the same path as her boyfriend and ended the call on her end, too. 

…which left a very frustrated Marinette with an equally frustrated Tikki. 

At least both she and the kwami agreed on one thing in the end – it couldn’t get any worse.

Obviously, neither of them had watched enough cartoons. 

* * *

Adrien was laying on his bed staring at the ceiling and wondering when would be a right time to visit Marinette.

He’d been wondering… for quite a while now…

He had already bought a bouquet of the most beautiful roses he could find in the flower shop and the chocolate truffles he knew Marinette adored in hopes that Alya knew what she was saying when she suggested that. That happened… somewhere around nine in the morning when he still thought it was too early to bother Marinette. 

Then at noon he thought it was… well noon and she might be with her family, or busy with… whatever. Then he wondered if she liked sleeping in the afternoon and chose to let the time pass again and now… at almost 5, he wondered if he didn’t miss his chance with all his waiting. 

That is… until his phone chimed, a message from Alya appearing on his screen.

_Heard nothing from m yet. That better be because you.re there Agreste_

“Well screw it all to hell,” he grumbled as he finally stood up and found Plagg munching idly on a slice of Camembert. 

It took him seven minutes to find himself on Marinette’s balcony, bouquet and chocolates clutched in a death grip.

It took him another ten to even think how to begin his speech

It would’ve probably taken him another fifteen to come up with the first line if a hand hadn’t touched his shoulder interrupting his frantic pacing and scaring the hell out of him. 

The screech that came out of him would’ve made any cat proud to be associated with him. 

“Sorry for startling you-” she started, sheepishly- “it’s just… I heard you pacing. I guessed it was you, I mean. Sorry…”

He took a moment to take her in but then he remembered what he’d brought her and, losing all traces of composure and grace, he almost shoved the flowers at her. He felt himself turning red instantly.

“I’m sorry for yesterday!” he began, gulping. “I swear I didn’t mean you to figure it out. I didn’t even think it’d be that obvious. I don’t think I was even thinking at the moment…”

His face, the way he was looking at her as if everything depended on her _“forgiving”_ him, made her stumble through her words, too, as she interrupted him, reaching tentatively for the flowers. 

There‘s never even been something to be _forgiven_.

“Hey, hey, hey, you did nothing wrong, ok? I kind of… panicked a little, to be honest. I didn’t think I could be that unlucky...”

The way the ears atop his head dropped made her wonder if she could’ve said it any worse.

So she did the first thing that came to her mind… which meant effectively _saying_ everything that came to her mind.

“No, no, no not like that. But I’ve had this really major crush on Chat for a while now and when you started punning left and right and calling me ‘princess’ and being flirtatious and all it just clicked and I was so dam frustrated that I couldn’t see you without a mask because that would’ve meant knowing who you are and that was a no, no too, so I kind of let that frustration out on you and I’m… really sorry for that…” she finished with a guilty smile.

He blinked. Once. Twice. 

“You have a crush on me,” he stated, slightly squinting his eyes and letting his lips stretch into a tentative smirk.

“…What…?” her eyes glimmered with something akin to panic as she tried to deny. “What? No, no, no, I know you like someone else, why would I have a crush on you?! Nope, but I was really worried. As a friend. Because friends are worried for their friends when they reveal their identities because they’re stupid. Not their crush, but them, you know, the friend, they’re stupid. So no, don’t worry about that, it’s perfectly alright.”

He knew laughing would be very much not good right now, but he couldn’t keep a smile in however much he’d tried. He knew he’d barely avoided a catastrophe already, though it was not his merit at all - only hers, that anger he’d feared nonexistent in her words. Instead in front of him stood a rambling, blushing Marinette who’d never looked more adorable - or kissable, for that matter. In front of him stood the girl he was crushing _hard_ on, admitting to her own crush and then trying to deny it with all she had, and failing – not because she was afraid of rejection, it seemed, but because she didn’t want _him_ to feel bad for not liking her back. 

He’d never liked her more. 

And he had a little detail to clarify there. 

He smiled, “I don’t like anyone else though.”

He caught her by surprise apparently, caught her in the middle of taking in a big breath, readying herself for another attempt at making it “clear” there was no crush. 

She blinked at him. Cocked her head. Her expression morphed into something almost incredulous, he would’ve said.

“No, no, no, you’re doing this all wrong! You,” she pointed at him, “should be upset. You should be angry. You should not give a damn about crushes right now because I revealed your damn identity and you should be angry.”

“I’m not, M.”

“Ooookay… we start again and you stop pretending for my sake. So. Chat Noir, I’m so very sorry for revealing…”

“I’m not upset, Marinette,” he interrupted her. “It happened, we were both stupid and we made a mistake, but it could’ve been worse. I accept your apology and I’m sorry myself. I didn’t really know who I was supposed to meet with and… I kind of… got really excited to see it was you there…” he trailed off, a faint blush dusting his cheeks, a hand grazing his nape. The shy smile on his lips, the way he spoke to her, everything about him generally, really, made her try a smile of her own.

All he would’ve wanted then was to tell her how much he liked her, too. All he would’ve wanted was to tell her who he was and get rid of that one problem. But he knew he couldn’t really do that, not without making the situation somehow worse. He knew that everything that happened wasn’t even close to being ideal, and he didn’t want to make things any more complicated or risky. So he knew all he could do was to get it over with, the apology and the clarification that no, he was not mad at her, indeed. 

It would’ve been so much easier if she hadn’t told him she had a crush on him. On Chat Noir him.

He decided to take one more risk. Just one more. 

“Just to be clear though,” he started again, a frown already marring his brow, “I do like you, too. But considering how guilty you’ve felt about helping Alya and Nino realise who I am… I don’t really know if you’d like to know, too. And as much as I’d like to go on dates with you and everything… well I guess I can’t really do that as Chat. So… yeah…”

She took a second to muse over what she wanted to say before looking at him again and saying, “Well… I don’t want you to take any more risks, but… if you really wanted to… maybe… I don’t know… have a first… trial date or something here. Maybe… just maybe we could work it out.”

He knew she was amazing and kind and smart and resourceful and basically awesome altogether. He’d known as much. But it didn’t make him any less happy to hear her saying she’d like to give it, whatever it was that they had, a chance. So he did the only thing that seemed appropriate at the moment – stretched the chocolates he had bought towards her and as soon as she’d taken them with a small frown and a confused “thank you” he went straight to her and enveloped her in the tightest hug he could manage. 

“Perfect.”

Her relieved laugh was answer enough.

As soon as he let her go he couldn’t help but come back to a certain detail he’d noted.

“Why were you so convinced I liked someone else?”

“You said so?”

He shook his head, confused. “I did?”

“Well…” it was a little too late to take back what she’d said, Marinette realized as she continued, “you said so to Ladybug, but it doesn’t matter now, right? Cause apparently I’m that someone else.”

She hoped her smile didn’t look a tad bit too forced. 

He seemed even more confused for a second, but then he seemed to realize something and he smiled again, “Oh, yeah, I forgot you and LB were friends. I didn’t think she’d care though, anyway.”

“Why wouldn’t she care?! Of course she cares! It might have hurt a bit but she was really happy for you,” she defended herself, not understanding how he could think that something so important to him would’ve been so… trivial, so unimportant, for her.

“Hurt? Wait, what?”

Might as well go all out now. “Well she did like you then, but she _was_ happy for you. It doesn’t matter anyway now, she has a boyfriend.”

She… might have given a little too many details maybe. 

“…Huh?” 

“Um yeah, but… you kind of have a girlfriend, too, now, right?” she tried, looking at him with an eyebrow raised expectantly. Testing the waters, she would’ve said, although she knew it was kind of too late to call it just that.

The smile he shot her couldn’t have been described as nothing but smitten.

“I certainly hope so,” he whispered leaning in.

Of course that was the moment she’d finally make the connection between what he’d been telling her for so long and, well, herself. 

She leaned back and blinked at him. “You know, I remember now you told Ladybug something very interesting about that mysterious crush of yours. You know me, don’t you? We’re… are we really friends outside of the mask?” she asked him, trying to fully wrap her mind it around it, too. 

His hesitation was the only confirmation she needed, despite the meek “no” that came more like a question than a straight answer. 

She arched an eyebrow that told him just how believable he was. So he tried changing the subject.

“I thought you didn’t want to know who I am under the mask. Wouldn’t that pretty much clue you in?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to… It’s more like… I don’t want to gamble too much and take too many risks… And you already mentioned we are friends, but I know a lot of people and I’ll just… try not to think about it. Too much. Aaanyway, another little detail I’ve just remembered - you really think I’m so amazing I could take on Hawk Moth?”

“Why do you remembers all these details? _I_ don’t even remember telling her so much,” he blushed.

“Um… well, it mattered to her. At the time. And I just… didn’t forget it either…? And now I’m kind of happy I paid attention, to be honest.”

“Well I’d think so considering how much you seem to like teasing me.” 

His pout was the most adorable thing in the world, but he got that right, she loved teasing him. 

“Better teasing than flirting like a teenager. What are you, twelve?”

His smirk almost made her miss the pout. Almost. 

“On a scale from one to ten, yes.”

She couldn’t help the giggle that escaped her lips, and as she wrapped her arms around him again, she mumbled, “I can’t believe you.”

“So are my ships canon or not?”

Alya’s voice was the last thing either of them expected and as she fully climbed out from her room, dragging an embarrassed Nino after her, Marinette and Chat sprung apart. 

The four took a moment just to look at one another.

Alya crossed her arms, expectantly. Beside her, Nino tried for an apology for their suddenly barging in and interrupting them, but, by the gleam in his eyes, it was quite clear he was just as curious.

When the silence continued, Alya sighed deeply, shoulders sagging. “You haven’t told each other yet.”

“Alya…” groaned Marinette, “really…? I thought we’ve already talked about it… and what do you even mean?! You said it yourself, one ship, or the other.”

Marinette decided it was time to resign to her fate as she saw her friend’s eyes sparkle with mischief. “Then one sure is canon.”

“You actually wanted me and Mari to get together?” asked Chat, so naively falling in her trap.

“But of course. You have no idea! Mari’s only ever crushed on two guys, you know? But oh, what crushes! It was you and this other guy from our class. You should ask her yourself.”

“Really, princess? I know I won you heart in the end, but you know what they say about cats and curiosity…” he trailed off, genuinely curious to know if that budding suspicion was true indeed.

“This is really not the time… come on Chat, don’t encourage her.”

“It’s just a name though, I might not even know him.”

She glared at him before finally answering him, “Adrien Agreste, content now? Don’t make me remind you of your enormous crush on Ladybug.”

“You have no idea how different that is, though.”

She looked at Chat, then at Alya. “Oh I know what you’re doing here. Nope, I’m not going to fall for that. Come on, guys… really?”

“Mari, girl, it’s literally painful to watch you two right now. You have no idea what a magnificent square you’ve created and Nino and I have been dying to tease you because of it. Just say it already.”

“Ok… no, stop. Let’s take a break because I’m actually confused now. What…square?” 

“Look,” intervened Nino, “you’ll do whatever you can to avoid getting akumatized and to get rid of Hawk Moth whether you know each other’s identities or not, and we already know. You guys are the strongest people I've ever met - beside Alya, of course - and I bet you could make it work alright, so do yourselves a favour and just… be done with it.”

Looking down at her purse, Marinette could see Tikki peeking through. The little kwami shrugged resigned and Marinette decided… maybe it wouldn’t actually be so bad for all the secrecy to be over. Especially since the idea of knowing who he was and him knowing who _she_ was made her quite giddy. She wanted it, and whatever the consequences, she knew they could deal with them. 

So she turned her eyes to him and let herself smile, “You know why your crush on Ladybug was actually so different from my crush on Adrien? Because it doesn’t really count if you crush on the same girl twice.”

A moment. Two. Then realisation downed on him and the sheer amazement in his eyes made Marinette’s cheeks turn pink. Then he started laughing. “What a coincidence,” he finally added, “it doesn’t count if you crush on the same boy twice either.” And as realization dawned on Marinette, too, Alya and Nino started howling with laughter. 

“Priceless,” he said when he finally caught his breath again. “We love you, guys, but you can be so oblivious sometimes…”

“I’m going to kill them. You in?” she laughed, that determined look he’d always loved already in her eyes, but underneath that he could see it, feel it in her voice, too – the silent “we’ll be alright”, the silent “we’re still the same”, and he could say he loved her even more.

“You know you can always count on me, m’lady.”

**Author's Note:**

> So. Here it is. Hope you liked it :)). 
> 
> I love hearing your thoughts, so leave comments if you want to ;)
> 
> Please note that English is not my first language, so if there are mistakes, point them to me and I'll go fix them.
> 
> Aaaand... I still need a beta reader, by the way, so if anyone offers, please do message me. Find me on [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/valiantlyjollynightmare)


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